Marianna was already planning how she would get out of Italy with the Magdalene information. She knew there was an urgency to this because those who were missing it would be all out to recover it and hide it away.
She decided to call her Uncle Charles who lived in Scotland beside Loch Lomond in a beautiful restored castle, Buchan Castle. She hadn’t seen him for a while, but he had always taken a keen interest in her progress through life and occasionally she sent him a postcard or an email to update him. It was a few Christmas’s ago that they had met and enjoyed a weekend together in his beautiful home.
His fortune had apparently been amassed in India many years ago. She wasn’t quite sure from what or where. She simply accepted that this was his heritage and had mused often at how lucky he was and how lucky she was to be able to visit with him and escape from the sometime pressures of day to day survival that she experienced.
Uncle Charles was delighted to hear from her and looked forward to having his driver meet her at Glasgow Airport. She was just to call and give arrival times, and of course, Adam, and any other members of her party were most welcome. He was also looking forward to hearing all about this mysterious adventure she was on.
Marianna replaced the receiver with a sigh of relief, which was accompanied by a dull flat feeling in the 3rd power centre of her body around the solar plexus. She dismissed this as being worry and anxiety about Adam.
As if by theatrical cue, Adam entered into the room, swept her up in his arms with a sheepish Benito following along behind.
“Thank God you are safe”, he said and kissed her thoroughly, “as are we”.
Benito was shifting from foot to foot rather embarrassed at the outward expression of love, with a little hint of lust, in front of him.
Marianna blurted out all that had transpired at high speed. She announced that they were to go to Uncle Charles to get space to work out what to do when Virgil finally cracked the code, which she felt he would do any time. He was nearly there.